1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, an image processing program for making a computer execute image processing, and a computer readable storage medium storing codes of the image processing program, respectively to be used with an apparatus or system for receiving and storing information streams of television broadcast and executing a reproduction process or the like of the stored streams.
2. Related Background Art
Video tape recorders (VTR) are prevailing as an apparatus for receiving a television broadcast program, storing it in a storage medium (magnetic tape or the like), and reproducing information (video signals) of the television broadcast program stored in the storage medium in accordance with a user instruction (instructing to reproduce the program at a time designated by the user).
The capacities of storage media such as hard disks and optical disks capable of being randomly accessed are rapidly increasing nowadays. Apparatuses utilizing such large capacity storage media in place of magnetic tapes used by VTR or the like are being developed.
For example, various types of apparatuses are being developed by using VTR techniques and storage media which have large capacities and can be randomly accessed. One example of such apparatuses is an apparatus which stores or records a television broadcast program always in real time and allows a user to reproduce the program starting from any time in the past.
A conventional reproduction apparatus using a storage medium such as a hard disk and an optical disk capable of being randomly accessed cannot meet the user requirements of roughly grasping the program contents during the period from a desired time in the past to the current time, although the apparatus allows the user to reproduce the program in the storage medium starting from any time in the past.
More specifically, if information stored in the storage medium to be reproduced is a relay broadcast program of a sport game, a user views the game from the start thereof or the middle thereof by reproducing the game from the storage medium.
However, if the user wants to view the game from the start thereof, the current state of the game cannot be known, whereas if the user wants to view the game from the middle thereof, the previous state and progress of the game cannot be known.
With a conventional apparatus, it is not possible to roughly grasp the contents of a program stored during the period from any time in the past and to the current time.